El Pais Interview with Martha Nussbaum

“Our current political climate is hysterical; we need philosophy like Socrates’ Athens”

Lola Galan

El Pais

October 23, 2012

This Friday Professor Martha C. Nussbaum will receive the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences for her contribution to humanities, political philosophy and her ethical conception of human development, a recognition the philosophy expert says she is "amazed, honored and delighted" to receive. Born in 1947 in New York City, Nussbaum is currently the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. She is also a board member of the Human Rights Program, having previously taught at Harvard and Brown.

Nussbaum is the author (or co-author) of a number of influential books, including The Fragility of Goodness (1986), Sex and Social Justice (1998), and more recently Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities.

Question. Did you know that your work was so well appreciated in Spain?

Answer. I was certainly aware that most of my books had been published in Spain, and that some younger scholars were writing about it, but I was not aware of the extent of that appreciation.